More Than A Million US Citizens Have A Top Secret Clearance

CNN: The number of people with Top Secret clearance will shock you 

(CNN)The central question surrounding the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago last week is the one that remains most unanswered: What documents did former President Donald Trump have and why is the government so intent on getting them back? 

There are other questions, of course. Did he take the material because he thought they were "cool," like some kind of trophy? Or did he see some advantage in having them, The New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman wondered during an appearance on CNN's "New Day" on Monday. 

Were the documents related to Roger Stone's pardon by Trump somehow key evidence? What is behind the appearance of material on the "President of France" in the receipt for what was taken? 

The imagination runs wild in the absence of facts. 

Trump has now demanded the documents be returned, even though presidential papers, under US law, are not his property. 

The most tantalizing detail is that 11 sets of documents were classified. 

It's shining a light on the system of classification by which the government hides information from its people in the name of everyone's national security.  

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WNU Editor: The focus of this CNN report is not on how many Americans have a top secret security clearance. The focus is on former President Trump's handling of documents that he says he declassified. 

And while this CNN report gives a few examples of high profile people being punished for not properly handling "Top Secret" information. Of course there is no mention on Hillary Clinton facing no consequences on how she handled Top Secret documents and information on her private server, or the destruction of devices and information that contained this information even though she was under subpoenaed to produce.

Biden Administration Moving To Deny President Trump Access To Classified Information After Leaving Office

Ron Klain, the incoming White House chief of staff, pictured made the comment after former principal deputy director of national intelligence, Sue Gordon, wrote an op-ed arguing against sharing such information with Trump once he has left the presidency 

Daily Mail: Biden will wait for recommendation from intelligence advisers on whether to share classified information with Trump after he leaves office, top aide says

 * President-elect Biden is to consult with intelligence advisers on whether to provide President Trump with daily intelligence briefings 

 * Every former president has normally benefited from the national security perk with routine intelligence briefings and access to classified information 

 * Sue Gordon, who left the Trump administration in 2019, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that Biden should move to deny Trump briefings after leaving office 

 * She wrote there was a national security risk posed by Trump as a private citizen 

 * Gordon was the principal deputy director of national intelligence from 2017-19 

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden will wait for a recommendation from his intelligence advisers on whether to share classified information with President Donald Trump after the Republican leaves office, Biden's top aide said on Sunday. 

Ron Klain, the incoming White House chief of staff, made the comment after former principal deputy director of national intelligence, Sue Gordon, wrote an op-ed arguing against sharing such information with Trump once he has left the presidency. 

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Update: Biden will wait for recommendation on sharing secrets with Trump (Reuters) 

WNU Editor: So a bunch of intelligence advisers loyal to President-elect Biden are going to determine if President Trump can have access to classified information when he leaves office. This would be unprecedented, and will set a new precedent in American politics.

The U.S. Military Keeps Its Deep-Sea Operations A Secret

Reuters

Steve Weintz, National Interest: Why The U.S. Military Keeps Its Deep-Sea Operations A Secret

What goes on beneath the waves?

Here's What You Need To Remember: Deep-sea searches today cross the public consciousness when planes go missing, but deep-sea exploration draws less public attention than space exploration. We don't know what's happening in the dark deep, the secret waters where espionage, technology and the ocean meet.

Seemingly ripped from the pages and screens of a geopolitical thriller, one of the Cold War's most incredible adventures stretched from outer space to the ocean floor, involved bus-sized satellites and deep-diving subs, and pulled together sailors, spooks and scientists into a secret new national capability.

On June 15, 1971, eleven years after the first spy satellite began taking its photos and the first submarine reached the bottom of Earth's oceans, a U.S. Air Force Titan III missile lofted a spacecraft the size of a Greyhound bus into orbit. The first of America's third-generation spysats, the KH-9 HEXAGON carried 33 miles of film and four recovery capsules to return it all to Earth. Its cameras and film stock could count the slices of a pizza from 100 miles up.

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WNU Editor: Three quarters of the world is covered with water. I am sure a lot of stuff is happening under the waters.

Military Operations Can No Longer Be Kept Secret

The Pentagon is investing billions in artificial intelligence to mine data that could help them win the next war. Officials have said they are actively working to "refine information analysis" through AI, to eventually reach operators on the ground or in the sky in a decisive and streamlined way. (US Army illustration)

Military.com: The Days of Secret Military Operations May Soon Be Over. Does That Matter?

In the age of social media and increasingly available connectivity, experts say it is becoming more and more challenging for the U.S. military to conduct operations under a cloud of darkness.

Secrets now come with a half-life, multiple experts recently told Military.com. And what comes into question is how the U.S. military will plan each operation down to the smallest detail in order to avoid catastrophic incidents with emerging powers or near-peer threats such as Russia or China.

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WNU Editor: A third of the world is already connected via through the internet by social media. In such a world secrets are no longer possible .... especially when it comes to military operations.

Here Are 5 Secret Military Projects That Accidentally Leaked

© Photo : Public Domain / U.S. Navy

Sputnik: From J-20 to Status-6: Top 5 Secret Military Projects That Accidentally Leaked

The world's top military powers are known for their strict secrecy regarding next-gen weapons. However, no country seems immune from accidentally leaking invaluable information about their new planes, ships or tanks to the public, as well as their adversaries. Sputnik breaks down the top five weapons accidentally exposed in the past few decades.

Red more .....

WNU Editor: China J-20 fighter jet and navy rail-gun surprised me. But Russia's naval nuclear drone was the surprise that got me that I do wonder if it was done on purpose.

Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: 'Space Secrets Becoming Harder To Keep'

Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Credit: DoD

Space News: Senior military official: Space secrets becoming harder to keep

Gen. Selva: U.S. space capabilities are increasingly easier to track and monitor.

WASHINGTON — The United States is right to be worried about competitors catching up in the race for space supremacy, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Paul Selva said Tuesday.

Defending space is hard because U.S. secrets are out in the open, Selva said during a breakfast meeting with reporters.“We’ve yielded an awful lot of ground to the Russians and the Chinese in space security.”

Space and cyber warfare experts like Gen. John Hyten, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, have warned that China and Russia are developing “counter space capabilities” such as electronic jammers and advanced signal scramblers specifically to target U.S. military satellites.

Selva said he agrees with Hyten about the seriousness of these threats. But even more alarming, he said, is the idea that U.S. space capabilities are becoming easier to track and attack if someone were determined to do it.

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WNU Editor:  I would say that "ALL" secrets are becoming harder to keep.

Here Are 4 Top Secret U.S. Military Sites That Were Exposed Online

© Google Earth

RT: Not so top secret: 4 times US military sites were exposed online

Fitness tracking apps have inadvertently revealed the locations of secret US military sites in the world’s most remote locations. However, it isn’t the first time technological blunders have given away valuable American secrets.

In light of the embarrassing setback for US clandestine operations, RT.com looks back at some of the most unfortunate security breaches in recent times.

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WNU Editor: The internet has made keeping secrets more and more difficult. And speaking of revealing top secret installations, the Strava's Fitness Tracking Map is a bigger story than what I had thought it would be .... Strava's Fitness Tracking Map Highlights Secret U.S. Military Bases Overseas (January 29, 2018). More here .... Strava Was Just The Beginning: Even Seemingly Innocent Data Can Be Weaponized (Forbes), and check out the video below ....

Are There Too Many Government Secrets?

Bloomberg editorial: Too Many Government Secrets Make the U.S. Unsafe

“There’s classified, and then there’s classified,” President Barack Obama said in a recent interview. Unfortunately, he’s right: The U.S. government classifies vast amounts of material as secret, top secret and the like, much of it with no relevance to national security.

This isn’t just a bureaucratic waste of money and a blow to the democratic ideal of government transparency. Overclassification makes the U.S. less secure, in that it distracts intelligence agencies from protecting actual life-and-death secrets, and undermines public support for data collection and other measures needed to keep us safe. Justice and accountability require a thorough reappraisal of the need for secrecy.

One person who understands the problem is Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, whom nobody could call soft on national security. In March, he asked his agency chiefs to find ways to make more documents available for public scrutiny. One striking suggestion: Switch from a system in which some materials are scheduled for declassification after a set period -- often 15 or 25 years -- to one in which officials actively look to identify documents that can be declassified sooner.

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WNU Editor: If it was not for the issue of Hillary Clinton's use of an unsecured private server to email documents that were "classified secret" .... we would not even be having this conversation. But the narrative is now being set .... especially if the FBI's report to the Attorney General on Hillary Clinton's handling of "secret" documents ... which should be released in the coming weeks .... recommends that she be indicted.

Is There A White House Double Standard When It Comes To Prosecuting Those Responsible For Intelligence Leaks?

President Obama during a news conference at the White House on April 5. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

New York Times: Obama’s Latest View on Secrecy Overlooks Past Prosecution of Leaks

WASHINGTON — When President Obama defended Hillary Clinton’s email practices in a television interview over the weekend by saying, “there’s classified, and then there’s classified,” he was only repeating what critics of government secrecy have long contended: that most of what is classified is merely sensitive, a little embarrassing or perhaps a policy debate still in progress.

But these are distinctions the Obama administration has not necessarily made in its treatment of classified information when dealing with news organizations, whistle-blowers or government officials accused of leaking information.

The White House has overseen some nine leak prosecutions, compared with just three under all previous presidents, drawing sharp criticism from news media advocates. The administration denounced the huge trove of confidential State Department cables released by WikiLeaks as damaging to American diplomacy, and it created task forces to counter Edward J. Snowden’s revelations about the National Security Agency – some of which involved genuine secrets, and some of which did not.

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Previous Post: President Obama: “There’s Classified And Then There’s Classified”

WNU Editor: NSA leaker Edward Snowden's response to President Obama's comment that "there’s classified and then there’s classified" probably sums up what some leakers are thinking .... "If only I had known".

Is There A White House Double Standard When It Comes To Prosecuting Those Leakers?

President Obama during a news conference at the White House on April 5. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

New York Times: Obama’s Latest View on Secrecy Overlooks Past Prosecution of Leaks

WASHINGTON — When President Obama defended Hillary Clinton’s email practices in a television interview over the weekend by saying, “there’s classified, and then there’s classified,” he was only repeating what critics of government secrecy have long contended: that most of what is classified is merely sensitive, a little embarrassing or perhaps a policy debate still in progress.

But these are distinctions the Obama administration has not necessarily made in its treatment of classified information when dealing with news organizations, whistle-blowers or government officials accused of leaking information.

The White House has overseen some nine leak prosecutions, compared with just three under all previous presidents, drawing sharp criticism from news media advocates. The administration denounced the huge trove of confidential State Department cables released by WikiLeaks as damaging to American diplomacy, and it created task forces to counter Edward J. Snowden’s revelations about the National Security Agency – some of which involved genuine secrets, and some of which did not.

Read more ....

Previous Post: President Obama: “There’s Classified And Then There’s Classified”

WNU Editor: NSA leaker Edward Snowden's response to President Obama's comment that "there’s classified and then there’s classified" probably sums up what some leakers are thinking .... "If only I had known".

President Obama: “There’s Classified And Then There’s Classified”

The Hill: Obama’s ‘classified’ comments strike nerve

President Obama’s latest defense of Hillary Clinton has struck a nerve with both the GOP and government leakers such as Edward Snowden.

The president’s comments — “there’s classified and then there’s classified” — suggested some classified information is more sensitive than other classified information, uniting in scorn critics across the political spectrum.

To advocates for government transparency, the remarks stunk of duplicity by suggesting that federal classification rules are arbitrary and don't apply to the Democratic presidential front-runner.

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WNU Editor: If its classified .... its classified .... period.

Is President Obama The Most Secretive President?

Obama: The Most Secretive President? -- Lloyd Grove, The Daily Beast

A presidential administration expected to be more open and transparent than preceding ones has become focused on keeping secrets and preventing legitimate public inquiry.

Having been elected to the White House with the promise of increased openness and transparency regarding government operations, Barack Obama may end his presidency as among the most secretive in American history.

That, anyway, was the conclusion of a couple of the high-powered panelists Monday night during a debate on freedom of the press vs. national security at the Paley Center for Media.

The result—argued Hina Shamsi of the American Civil Liberties Union and Barton Gellman of The Washington Post—is stifled freedom of the press, less official accountability and a potential increase in government-sanctioned wrongdoing behind a veil of secrecy that supposedly protects the homeland but actually shields federal officials from legitimate public inquiry.

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My Comment: Every administration has always tried their best to guard their secrets .... the difference is that the U.S. press has (from my perspective) definitely been "cowed" into submission when it comes to covering damaging stories with this administration. Scandals like Benghazi, the IRS targeting conservative groups, Fast and Furious, the politicization of the Justice Department, Edward Snowden's NSA revelations .... in many of these stories the main stream media have either been slow in covering, or (in the case of Benghazi) sometimes even being absent for months. I can understand why some secrets must be kept secret .... but we now have a press that is clearly worried that blow-back from the White House may end up seriously damaging their careers .... or (when it comes to national security secrets) going to jail.

What Is Top Secret In Washington?

A Washington Riddle: What Is ‘Top Secret’? -- David Sanger, New York Times

WASHINGTON — LESS than 24 hours after Pfc. Bradley Manning was convicted last week of handing off 250,000 State Department cables and defense documents to WikiLeaks, The Guardian published on its Web site the latest classified material from the leaker of the moment, Edward J. Snowden. That installment included the National Security Agency’s playbook for XKeyscore, a powerful surveillance program enabling the agency’s analysts to monitor and trace Internet searches around the globe.

The cases have provided lots of cable-television drama, from Private Manning’s court-martial to Moscow’s provocative granting of temporary asylum to America’s best-known fugitive. But the deeper lessons lie in how the government is stumbling in its efforts to protect its secrets in the Internet age. Washington has still not heeded two decades of warnings that the best way to protect America’s biggest secrets is to have far fewer of them and to recognize that much of what is stamped “secret” today is widely available on the Internet.

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My Comment: Because of the internet and mass communications .... we are living in an age where keeping secrets is becoming next to impossible. And while governments are focused on keeping secrets .... it is clear that this is becoming next to impossible to enforce.

Too Many Secrets?

Too Many Secrets? On Sneakers, And The NSA -- Eli Sugarman, Time

George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is the most famous fictional work about omnipresent government surveillance and its myriad risks. Yet, an often-overlooked movie from 1992 provides even more prescient insights into the modern surveillance state, especially recently revealed National Security Agency collection programs. Sneakers centers on the development of an advanced decryption device that can break all U.S. codes — and the NSA’s attempts to obtain the device at all costs.

Along the way, it explores the legality of NSA domestic surveillance, the U.S. government’s interest in spying on Americans, and the onset of the digital age in which information is power. Despite a tongue-in-cheek plot, Sneakers is extremely relevant for the ongoing public debate about privacy and the serious risks posed to civil liberties by increased NSA domestic surveillance.

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My Comment: Sneakers has always been one of my favorite movies, but Enemy of the State is another film that nicely captures the power of the intelligence community when it comes to monitoring our digital activities.

More Secrets Are Being Classified Than Declassified

Government warehouse scene from the film, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Wikipedia

Secrets Piling Up Faster Than Government Can Declassify Some -- McClatchy News

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — In the darkened stacks of a nondescript building in the suburbs outside Washington, dozens of federal employees wearing protective gloves spend day after day sifting through millions of pages of secret documents, some of them nearly a century old.

The 70 staffers of the National Declassification Center are charged with deciding – anonymously and quietly – which of the nation’s old secrets can be laid bare for the world to see.

They have a backlog of hundreds of millions of pages marked for possible declassification, and they’re able to release those that don’t reveal information about weapons of mass destruction, harm diplomatic relations or threaten the safety of the president of the United States. But no one believes they’ll be able to make a year-end deadline set by President Barack Obama. And in the meantime, the government is classifying even more secrets.

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My Comment: Only 70 staffers? There has to be a better system.

7 Secret Military Bases

Thule Air Base

7 Obscure, Remote and Super-Geeky Military Bases -- Danger Room

The military doesn't always pick prime real estate for its bases. Often it prefers strange, far-flung and obscure parts of the world — particularly when it comes to its geekiest endeavors. Some are out-of-the-way test sites for the latest military and space technology. Others are far-flung spots of particular interest to scientists, in areas few could survive unshielded from the elements. Some are obscure because the Pentagon doesn't like to advertise what they do.

Others face a predicament. Some bases built during the Cold War have found their original reason for existing suddenly disappear. But instead of closing them down, the Pentagon has found new reasons to justify their existence. Others now exist only on life support. There are also the bases built as a consequence of Cold War nuclear paranoia, now acting as a shelter for paranoia over terrorism and global pandemics.

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My Comment: I would hazard a bet that there are probably some super-duper military base that we still do now know anything about.

How Are Secret Files Labeled 'Classified' By The Pentagon

Sorry About That, Chief: A Class in Classification -- Time

Secret documents are important to the U.S. military. That’s why the Pentagon has just issued a 43-page guide called Marking Classified Information.

Sure, some people, including the director of national intelligence, argue that the government classifies too many things. But if they’re going to be classified, they need to be classified properly. That’s where this how-to guide comes in.

You know it’s serious when its cover notes:

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My Comment: Talk about cumbersome bureaucracies.

Pentagon: Secrets In SEAL Book 'No Easy Day'

DOD Confirms: Secrets In SEAL Book 'No Easy Day' -- Politico

The Pentagon says an embattled ex-SEAL’s new book about the Osama bin Laden raid contains “sensitive and classified” information and it won’t back down from a legal standoff with the writer and his publisher.

The Defense Department’s top spokesman, George Little, confirmed for reporters Tuesday that the book “No Easy Day” includes secrets about U.S. special operations, a new objection beyond the Pentagon’s initial point that its author, Matt Bissonnette, had violated his nondisclosure agreement.

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More News On Pentagon Reports That There Are Military Secrets In SEAL Book 'No Easy Day'

Pentagon says ex-SEAL book contains secrets -- Bloomberg Businessweek/AP
Pentagon: Ex-SEAL's bin Laden book has secrets -- CBS/AP
Former SEAL’s Book Reveals Classified Information, Pentagon Says -- SFGate/Bloomberg
SEAL book on Bin Laden raid exposes state secrets: US -- AFP

Update: Lawyer For Ex-SEAL Who Wrote Bin Laden Book Said The Pentagon Has No Room To Sue -- Examiner

Can The U.S. Administration Keep A Secret?

Loose Lips And The Obama National Security Ship -- CNN

The level of detail spilling out through media reports about crucial national security operations is raising the question of whether President Barack Obama's administration can keep a secret - or in some cases even wants to.

In just the past week, two tell-all articles about Obama's leadership as commander-in-chief have been published, dripping with insider details about his sleeves-rolled-up involvement in choosing terrorist targets for drone strikes and revelations about his amped-up cyber war on Iran.

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My Comment: This being the political season .... I will have to say no.

The Traitor Of Pearl Harbor

Photo: William Forbes-Sempill

The Traitor Of Pearl Harbor -- New York Post

New documentary reveals treachery of a British lord

In August 1941, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and American President Franklin Roosevelt held a top secret meeting on the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales to discuss military matters, including America’s then-top-secret assistance of the British battle against Germany.

Later that month, British codebreakers intercepted a communique from the Japanese with an exact, detailed account of that meeting. While the news stunned the British leader, even worse was the revelation that one of the men who passed the information along was not only a longtime Churchill associate, but a highly regarded member of the House of Lords.

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My Comment: The special care that was given to this traitor by the British government upon learning about his treachery is a surprise .... he shown have been thrown into jail for a very long time. I guess there are still some secrets about World War II that they are not prepared to reveal to us (yet).